Sambisa is a vast area of land located
south of Borno State. The thick forest
area with swampy condition during rainy season is believed to be harbouring makeshift camps of suspected members of Boko Haram Islamists. It has boundaries with Chibok, Askira Uba, Damboa, Gwoza, Konduga,Dikwa, Bama and other local government areas of the state.

There is a game reserve situated in the heart of Sambisa forest, but when
members of the terrorist group were
dislodged by the military and vigilante youths from Maiduguri,Borno State capital, most of them relocated to the Sambisa and destroyed the game reserve last year killing some of the staff and settling there.

Although the military has told the whole world severally that during their offensive against Boko Haram, they were able to kill many of the insurgents and destroyed their camps,people question
whether it is true that security forces actually were able to enter Sambisa. This is because of the several number of attacks and killings in Sambisa and surrounding villages.

The game reserve, according to findings,is located 14 kilometres of Kawuri village, along Maiduguri-Bama road which came under a deadly attack last month, leaving 85 people killed with property worth millions of naira destroyed.It has an area of approximately 518
square kilometres.It harbours a sizeable population of wildlife, typical ofsavannah habitat/ environment; like monkeys, antelopes, lions, elephants, as well as bird species such as ostrich,bustard, etc.

Contrary to what many think that Borno is a desert area, there are sizeable parts of the state, especially southern Borno,Sambisa inclusive, which vegetation is
savannah by nature. Prior to its destruction by insurgents, the
game reserve was handed over to the Federal Government through the National Park.

The Chibok incident, which sparked
global outrage, saw over 200 schoolgirls of a government girls secondary school being abducted, and still missing with extensive search and rescue mission into
the Sambisa forest.

*Ordeal in Sambisa

Parents of the abducted school girls, at the weekend, recounted their experiences in the Sambisa forest in search of their daughters. The aggrieved, traumatised parents, who spoke when Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima visited the school,also disputed the figures provided by the state government of the victims who
escaped from their kidnappers. The parents had vowed, last week, to storm the forest because the military had purportedly failed to enter the place and rescue the children.

Narrating his experience, Mallam Amos Chiroma,who was among the parents who combed the Sambisa forest, told the governor: “We saw a lot of strange things in the Sambisa forest but we will not be
able to disclose all for security reasons. Borno and indeed this country require prayers from all and sundry.

“While we were in the forest with over 200 volunteers who only had cutlasses,bows, arrows and sticks, we came across different makeshift camps suspected to be owned by terrorists. It is however
unfortunate that we had to turn back when we met one good Samaritan in the forest who advised us that it was in our own interest to go back because the area we were approaching in the forest was a dead zone dominated by terrorists.

“If soldiers had accompanied us to the forest, we would have been optimistic that our missing children would have been rescued, or we would have been satisfied if we could just see the bodies of our daughters”.

Another parent, Mallam Shettima Yau Haruna, said since the incident, he and other affected parents had been having sleepless nights and they summoned courage to enter the Sambisa forest.

He told Shettima: “We want to seize this opportunity to thank you for the visit and identify with us at this sorrowful moment. But the truth of the matter is that only 39 out of about 250 students have so far been rescued contrary to official reports that 44 students were rescued out of 129 who were abducted as they were preparing to write their senior secondary school certificate examinations. We want to emphasise that we are not happy with this development. While we continue to pray for the safe return of our daughters, we therefore appeal to government and our security operatives to please intensify the search for our missing innocent children”.

Our correspondent, who visited the
school, last week, observed that the
entire structure and vehicles in the school were set ablaze as well as the council secretariat and the residence of the caretaker chairman.

The governor, while addressing parents of the abducted students, sympathised with them and promised to deploy all human and material resources towards the safe release of the missing students. He, however, called on all and sundry to continue to pray and fast for the release of the abducted girls.

42 Responses to INSIDE BOKO HARAM’S HIDEOUT : THE SAMBISA FOREST

I hope to visit Sambisa/ Maiduguri this year, I feel its like the Namibian bush, rather than the rainforests we have in the south.
Whenever I visualise the place I think of it like the bush the SWAPO/ SADF operated in in Northern Namibia (http://www.sadf.info/SWATF%20Operations.html)

Oga Beeg do you have any steers or photos as to what the terrain is actually like, I can’t see any major rivers but I’m resuming there must be a swamp/ lake or water source feeding it

Sambisa lies within the basin of the River Yedseram. Depending on the intensity of rainfall, it could fathomably become swampy as the river floods the grassy plains in its coverage area.

The major wetlands area in N.E Nigeria however lies over 200 miles to the northwest of Sambisa – the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands which lies next to the area where desert sand dunes and oases become the permanent geographical feature. It is locked tight on the Niger-Nigeria borderlands.

For a dismounted platoon 3 Sections of 8 men with a Platoon HQ of 6 men
Each section has a 1 x sharpshooter (FN FAL with optics), 1 x Light Machine gun i.e 5.56 Minimi, 1 x RPG or handheld grenade launcher and 5 x riflemen (AKs). Each man has 6 mags, 2 frag and 2 smoke grenades. Platoon HQ has Platoon and Sgt, 60mm mortar team (2 men), 2 x GPMG
The sharpshooters can neutralise enemy RPG, machine gunners, crew served weapons and drivers.
LMGs allow sections to suppress the enemy either to break contact or support an attack, RPG allows section to destroy enemy vehicles or bunkers, grenade launcher gives each section an indirect fire capability, able to fire over walls, airburst or over cover
GPMG allows a platoon to supress an enemy for an attack or break up an enemy attack, the commander could either distribute them or keep them together, the mortar neutralises enemy dismounts or vehicles up to 2km away. this gives a platoon the ability to defeat an enemy or at least hold a position long enough for support

Vehicle patrols could consist of APC’s but to close with the enemy you need light recce vehicles like the VBL, with 12.7mm HMG or else modified technicals with 14.5mm, my ideal mix would be 4 vehicle patrol, one vehicle with a 60mm/ 81mm mortar/ automatic grenade launcher on the back and a 7.62mm for close protection, 2 with 12.7mm and 7.62mm for the commander. A third with 14.5mm and 7.62mm.

FOBs should have 81mm mortars and 105 artillery pieces
Mobile MRLs to support assaults would be good

Nobody even knows where all our MLRSs are and why they are not being used widely enough in this campaign. Someone must have given the impression in-house NA that you don’t use them in urban COIN which does not necessarily apply all the time…especially for a setting like Sambisa. The systems also burn through a whole shitload of rockets, really fast, so cost considerations may also explain the reluctance to use them widely.

Field artillery piece deployment per FOB like you suggested saved many a day in Afghanistan for the Americans and the British

However my major point is on the snipers. I know they take sometime to train and often have to sprint away from their main platoons just before or during engagements, a fact that reduces their overall kill tally…it is still my point of view that we are not using them widely enough. Maybe we need to increase their number per platoon.
The BH RPG men, suicide bombers and machine gunners have just enjoyed too inch beginners’ luck success. I can imagine how badly our frontline soldiers are longing to see much more of the frozen, surprised looks from lead Bolo Hiram elements as they drop dead when the silent, long distance, high caller bullets hit them from unknown directions and from distances that can be up to 1km.
Maybe falling to unseen Nigerian Armynsniper bullets before being able to do harm will eventually curtail their morbid enthusiasm to die with many.

Since the question is; where is boko haram in the sambisa? We should attempt something similar to what the Americans did on encircling Baghdad. They sent an armoured convoy to test out Baghdad defences, as a rapidly moving ‘spear’ in and out of the city. We could employ similar tactics by sending in our Panhards,Mowags or scorpions,maybe even a composite unit as a rapid thrust through sections of the forest to methodically eliminate certain areas of the forest from Bh’s control and concentrate them to a tiny corner before sending in air assets.If done constantly and unrelentingly,It would be unbearable to live under a condition of constant raids by armoured units.
My two kobo.

April 23, 2014 12:20
………..
“Our aim is to consolidate the transformation of the Nigerian Air Force by employing innovative approaches with a focus on joint capabilities and consideration for credible international partnerships,’’ he said.

The CAS said that the Federal Government had approved the acquisition of new fighter jets and helicopters for the NAF, while upgrading some of the existing platforms to enable the air force to perform optimally………..

On Apr. 16, Nigerian Air Force C-130H-30, registration NAF918, conducted a test flight from Cambridge airport.
The air test came slightly less than three years after the aircraft had arrived on Aug. 28, 2011, from Lagos, Nigeria, where it had been dumped, out of use, for a period of 7-10 years. When the U.S. financed the restoration program, the Lockheed Martin Hercules was flown to the UK for major overhaul with Marshalls Aerospace. But its ferry flight was a sort-of Odyssey as The Aviationist’s contributor Tony Lovelock, who took the photographs in this article, recalls.
“Since the aircraft was unable to pressurise, due to massive corrosion of the front windscreen frames, it was flown low level at 12,000 feet from Lagos to England, by pilots wearing helmets and oxygen masks,” Lovelock says.

The air test came slightly less than three years after the aircraft had arrived on Aug. 28, 2011, from Lagos, Nigeria, where it had been dumped, out of use, for a period of 7-10 years.

When U.S. financed restoration program, the Hercules was flown to the UK for major overhaul with Marshalls Aerospace. But its ferry flight was a sort-of Odyssey as The Aviationist’s contributor Tony Lovelock, who took the photographs in this article, recalls.

“Since the aircraft was unable to pressurise, due to massive corrosion of the front windscreen frames, it was flown low level at 12,000 feet from Lagos to England, by pilots wearing helmets and oxygen masks,” Lovelock says.

“Radar and communication systems were also unserviceable, therefore navigation was based on road maps, and a hand held Satellite Navigation; radio communication with London Military, was ensured by a hand held Mobile phone.”

The radio failed as the aircraft was inside the French airspace. Mirage 2000s were scrambled to intercept and shadow the 30-year old cargo across the Channel and hand it over to the RAF Typhoons of the 11 Sqn QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) from Coningsby, which eventually escorted it until landing at Cambridge airport.

Upon arrival, the aircraft was met by dozens of Immigration Officers and Police, as someone had made a hoax telephone call, saying there were up to 50 Nigerians on board , who were trying to attempt an illegal entry into the UK.

“The aircraft, was immediately impounded and grounded, de fumigated and inspected for snakes, beetles and other non indigenous creatures that were to be found, were either removed, or killed, by Rentokill.”

Following inspection by Marshalls inspectors, work sheets were prepared and work eventually proceeded to return this aircraft to an airworthy condition. Twenty months later, having exceeded its anticipated financial budget many times, during what eventually became almost a complete rebuild, NAF918 finally departed Marshall Air field, Cambridge, runway 23 for its first Air Test at 17:30 LT, returning at 19:30, on Apr. 16, 2014.

This trip though an embarrassment to the NAF, revealed to everybody just how resourceful the force can be. The only downside was the loss of radio contact that caused an international incident and the fact that the British (perfidious Albion) took us to the cleaners with the billing and the whole fumigation thing was just beyond the pale.

Nigeria: Military Surrounds Location, Intensifies Negotiations to Free Abducted Girls
By Senator Iroegbu and Michael Olugbode, 28 April 2014
“The military has tracked down and surrounded the location, where over 200 schoolgirls who were abducted two weeks ago from Government Secondary School, Chibok, are being held captive, while exploring various options, including intense negotiations by locals and the Borno State Government to secure their release.

Disclosing this yesterday, security sources said the military has already identified the various camps in which the girls are being held, but is being cautious about executing a full onslaught against their captors, in order to avoid collateral damage.”

“Expressing frustration with the entire incident, the security official added: “Another thing you should note is that schools were closed within this period and this is both a day and boarding school, and not all the students were living in the school.

“So who gave them the directive to come to school and what were they doing in school at that time? Who are the students that make up these figures, because most of them were going to school from home since they are all members of Chibok community.”

First of all I have strong views about our leadership that I better keep to myself, so talk about bringing killers belong to the can.

What BH and their sponsors have suddenly realized is that the action of kidnapping has pitted them against the greatest power on the African continent which is the power of the Nigerian people. Please dont confuse this power (ability to control events and influence people) with anything connected to the current.administration, whose power, based on the above definition is very close to zero.
The BH has burnt all bridges to its previous support systems within the local communities and neighboring countries by this action, the kidnapping is rousing locals into a fear suppressing kind of righteous indignation. The BH realizes this and are currently very scared ..believe me when i say this. RPGS, machine guns and suicide bombings are nothing when your immediate environment is hostile.
Shekau himself has more fear for the CJTF and local hunters than the NA, he has devoted so much airtime to this group of machete and stick wielders that it is becoming suspicious.

There’s an interesting but contrary explanation of the kidnapping as a kind of ‘black operation’ by the FG to rattle the BH-local community dynamic which will explain the shell shockedness of Boko Haram and another less crediblentheory that it is the State Govt. that perpetuated the kidnapping to rattle GEJ’s administration.

I think with the International and National Onslaught of Anger they are Cautios, Right now the Army has a Slim Upperhand to get back to the Graces of the Country, If they can Execute this Attack well finding out EXACTLY where the Children are Kept they can Extract them and Waste that Camp with Everything.

In another report I heard there are over 3000 of them in dat Camp. But I’ve learnt to wait till we get the Real gist.

Again SSS should Investigate who reopened the School….if it was an order from the Governor or Minister of Education, or Commissioner whoever is Responsible needs to go to Jail. I don’t think it was a Coincidence it was Premeditated.

Execute what attack sir?.
The funny Senator Zanna is already claiming a number of the girls have been married off in a neighbouring country, taken through the dried out remains of the Lake Chad that serves as the border with Chad Republic.
If this is true and indeed the hostages were moved through Sambisa in northerly and easterly directions to neighbouring countries at a time when everybody has been suggesting a total lockdown of the area by the NA and NAF followed by security/ intelligence interdicting operations in Chad and Cameroon then i say, this is what failure looks like.
We can all go into denial mode and pretend that this is not a disaster for Nigeria but like they say…. the truth that will set you free will first make you very very angry.

Yeah Oga Are James, Nigerians have had their head in the sand for too long.

I remember how many times on this blog people have told me I was being alarmist about BH.

Fear mongering and what not. But as this 100% preventable Nigerian tragedy continues to unfold, I wonder when the denial will end.

The reason, I was sure that I was correct in my forecasts, is because I observed NA get it’s self in a similar pickle almost 2 decades ago 1st in Liberia, then more truly in sierra leone.

I observed how the lessons of those conflicts were deliberately hidden, instead of exposed and learned.

So when BH came to town, I had seen this movie twice already. It was clear that BH was going to rapidly evolve in it’s tactics and brutality.
It was also clear that nonchalance and corruption was again going to prevent NA from adequately rising to this challenge on Nigerian soil.

The archives of my bloggings for the last 2 and 1/2 years bears me out on this.

I warned about the status quo and worse with every chance I got.

Now folks are clamoring for the NA to seal off this territory or that border, what NA are they talking about ? The one nobody was interested in investing in ?

It was always clear that NA is Nigeria’s last line of defence, but Nigerians took this for granted, and left it up to corrupt politicians and corrupt generals that NA would be there when called upon.

If you want an army that can control and cover territory, like the area our young girls are being held it, you need HELICOPTERs, an aviation regiment FOR VERTICAL ENVELOPMENT.

Put that term in the search function of this blog and see how long I have been talking about it.

The entire country should have been in an uproar, when madam Okonjo said the military wasn’t a revenue generating industry, therefore she wouldn’t invest in it.
She should not be singled out however, for the rest of us also opined with our nonchalance.

So today, folks want a still under resourced NA to fly like SUPER MAN and protect our borders and schools from BH.

NA may have the best special forces on the continent, but what good are they if they cant maneuver thru our hills and forests.

The best spec ops on earth would be defeated by the ENVIRONMENT, if they are not equipped to deal with it.

Gentlemen, the exposing and shaming of Nigeria is just beginning. It only takes the right story, to bring the glare of the world press, to watch Nigeria fail at rudimentary military procedures.

More troops are beAing airlifted from TAC to the NE.
The Finance Minister said Nigeria is not at war like Columbia,that we are only having an insurgency! How I wish her family members too should be at the frontline went BH will attack with those their technicals.
The FG and MoD Abuja are confused,BH destroyed 2 Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters at Maiduguri airport and all the FG could do was to place order for just 6 six attack choppers! it mean they ordered just 4,because the other 2 are for the replacement of the two destroyed.
Please correct me if am wrong,a brand-new Mi-35E attack chopper cost between US$12-13 million,i.e a squadron(12) should cost between US$144-156 million to acquire!
Since the 2 choppers were destroyed,no attack chopper has been deployed at the NE again.If attack choppers were in Maiduguri,BH would not have attacked Giwa Barracks.Now our worst nightmare turn to reality,the Chibok College abduction,when will it end?
God help us all.

The sacked Political Adviser Gulak has finally been fingered as one of a group of corrupt individuals close to government involved in defence procurement arena that we have not been getting value for money from. How are we going to get value for money when somebody inside government is a supplier to same government (conflict of interest) and why will BH not be propped up from inside when a political adviser is making money from the war.
Now we are hearing about supply contracts for communications gear and weapons all going to this guy…offshore accounts, shell companies et.c, all the dirty financially rascally things I thought we left in the 80s.
As all this is going on, we still expect the young NA officer and his company of men at Sambisa to still remain super-motivated …crouched with his men around a few Hilux vehicles shivering at 2am at night, listening in vain for a non existent air patrol, AK 47s, empty bellies and lots of prayers that the RPG bearing highly mobile BH does not come that night.

I’ve said it many times, if I am made President of Nigeria, the first six months are to build six prisons, the next six months to build six cemeteries and I know all the people who are going in there.

oga Are James, seconded!! the last sentence had me rolling on the floor. i used to think i was the only one with this maximalist ideals to governance. curiously, we shouldn’t even bother with cemeteries, these profiteers do not deserve a marked grave nor a head stone. just cremate all.

The enemy has scored a strong strategic victory by the abduction of 234 (or 129) girls from GGSS (or is it GSS) Chibok.. They have made good on their promise ‘to take slaves and sell in the market’, shown that the Government cannot protect its citizens and taken extremely valuable bargaining chips with which to obtain concessions or ransom.

If the security forces manage to locate them, they cannot move on them as they would kill/ injure more hostages than they could possibly rescue, (there are in fact virtually no armed forces on the planet that can effect such a rescue short of bombarding the camp with sleep inducing drugs). If they do not identify the enemy positions they look incompetent.

If the security forces refuse to negotiate or refuse to pay a ransom or give other concessions they appear callous and Boko Haram can easily ratchet up emotions by starting to execute hostages. If they negotiate and accept terms, pay a ransom, release prisoners and give concessions, they have rewarded kidnappers and terrorists and given them a powerful incentive to do the same again.

If the security forces do nothing and just hope everyone forgets, the parents, civil society and the enemy themselves will make sure they don’t. If they single mindedly focus on freeing the hostages, every single day any one of those girls is in captivity is a victory for the enemy, that the entire world can see.

Heads you win, tails you lose.

The enemy has the ability to extract a significant ransom, exchange prisoners and obtain other concessions from the security forces. However once this has been done the released hostages will be a valuable source of intelligence on their locations, tactics and procedures. They could renege on the deal and give the security forces carte blanche to go in aggressively, arguing with some merit that the hostages were most likely going to be killed anyway.

Whatever concessions obtained will have to be balanced against the fact that kidnapping (mainly) Muslim female children is not something that be positively spun or easily explained even in the most virulent of jihadi circles. Boko Harams has virtually no popular support, except in those areas immediately bordering North Eastern Nigeria that they do not directly operate in, they have negligible support in the Western/ Middle Eastern/ Asian jihadi-sphere. It is the opinion of this commentator that the Nyanya bombing, with its virtually immediate Arabic language video was an attempt to broaden that support base, with a ‘propaganda of the deed’ type spectacular.

Whatever success that might have had is completely sunk by this abduction.

The morale is low, the morale is low. GEJ is the main cause of all this failure. He should not have allowed those governors to remain. Boko haram is an orchestrated sabotage by the Northern politicians. My heart goes out to troops in the frontline. Nigeria has failed her troops, Nigeria has failed her people.
The Chibok kidnap is premeditated, the governor and principal are all part of the game plan, the principal sacrificed those girls.
Who gave orders to open that school after been shut by F.G?
Why was that school the only school opened by the State govt?
Why did the principal suddenly became a drama queen, giving out conflicting figures?
How come the principal is yet to be arrested?
The military at the moment is at its lowest ebb, No morale. Jonathan indecisivity will destroy this country.

Evoke memories of Sani Abacha?
The monumental success that he was?
The President does not need to get angry. Anger is the last and most stupid emotion any commander needs at this point.
He needs to be calm, identify his strategic objective and direct his staff to achieve it and make them aware of the consequences of failure and resource it appropriately.

We all need to calm the fuck down. This is war, not football. All of this emotional wailing is exactly what the enemy wants and exactly why they did what they did, to panic the Government into something.
It is a brillian strategic move by the enemy, a classi heads you win, tails you lose tactic.
The objective for the FGN right now should be (A) Recover girls (B) damage control/ limitation/ shape the narrative (C) Repercussions on the enemy

@Peccavi
The CIC has held countless meetings, reshuffled security chiefs thrice and only last week held another mega security council meeting. Nigeria has over analysed tons of intelligence, rumours, scenarios, hunches,…prophecies available into what may now be called a state of paralysis.
On top of all that, we now hear that key actors involved in some of these efforts were probably hidden saboteurs in terms of their pecuniary or political interests in the non resolution of the issue.
Yet there is only one man who has our contract to deliver this physical security to Nigeria.

There has to come a time when an executive president ‘gets angry’ in terms of the failure of national institutions and people reporting to him. Based on that he begins taking calculated short term actions aimed setting a new pace for his staff.
Presently he needs to do the following (i) seize the initiative from terrorists and their sponsors (ii) assure the country that there is competent leadership in charge of the war effort (iii) awe the enemy with a flanking move, anything at all, whilst a grander, longer term strategy is unfolding (this was the initial effect of the state of emergency, it gave us about two months of respite that was unfortunately not consolidated upon).

Most immediately we need to find the girls and there is nothing strategic about looking for 200 kidnapped children in the NE of a country with GDP of $600bn. Just institutions doing their work.So the anger I am talking about should be informed by the lack of reliability of institutions.

As for the enemy gaining something from all the negative noises around, i say welcome to modern society in this information age. If you can’t stand its tough standards, ship out.
After 9/11, Americans laid bare their entire intelligence/security apparatus for their people to see. It was like a year of bloodletting in terms of recriminations, mutual accusations and condemnations between the State Dept., CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA,..xyz .They eventually self corrected and evolved the DHS and many other institutions we will never hear of in public. Since then there has been no major foreign terrorist attacks in the US, AQ was being killed at a rate of 5 per week by drones at some point.
So the question is what has AQ gained in real terms from all the negative internal noise from the American public and Press about their security after 9/11… probably nothing.

oga gbash10, unfortunately, it is happening. the political will shall continue to be absent until boko yeye reach a tipping point. for now, they re simply containing the insurgency.
the strategic importance of north east seems minimal in the minds of our political leaders. no oil, no Major revenue streaming into the coffers of the FG being affected, no major disruption to the centre, or even other strategic cities in the north, such as kano and kaduna. sorry, i don’t see the FG moving in the pace we would all like them to.

these mindless losers would continue their terrorism with full PR disaster for the country, and people would continue to cry to the govt to no avail. it is why they are terrorists. they go for headline grabbing attacks, to ensure a divided society. well, they shouldn’t even have bothered, this country is already divided and very few citizens can confidently say they have faith in this political architecture, boko yeye or not.
its a wake up call, but how quick our leaders can smell the coffee remains to be seen.

The issue of endemic corruption which pervades every facet of our society governmental and non-governmental. Can we reasonably presume that our armed forces are immune from this malady?

The outcomes of corruption are clear inefficiency, incompetence, mediocrity all leading to systematic process failures and indeed sometimes sabotage.

There has been clear systematic and operational failures on a massive scale, intelligence has been a sham, proactive conflict management seemingly to be generous ineffective and with regard to speedy tactical response, well what can we say, nothing.

We need to look at the issues critically but constructively unless we wish this sham to continue. I’m in the UK and our armed forces are becoming a worldwide big joke. Our information management has made us look stupid, we went on to declare that Boko haram is on the run and Shekau most likely dead. Three recent attacks have made these assumptions to be very far from the truth.

Firstly the attack on an Air force base in Maiduguri , the attempt was not shocking but their success was. These guys rode into town on a whole bunch of technical’s where was the intelligence, they should have been taken out miles before they got anywhere near the base.

Secondly, the Giwa barracks attack, how could these guys ride up into town in multiple technical’s once again where was the contingency plan the intelligent commensurate response. Where there no basic checkpoints where was the surveillance, the strategic watch points , etc, etc, I watched on you tube how they freed their comrades.

Finally, Chibok 200+ girls abducted, I watched Shekau with sadistic, perverse glee boasting about how he will sell our children, I mean it’s beyond belief. How could 200 plus girls be abducted in a state with emergency rule and under curfew, burn down a school, exchange fire with a few security guards. Then drive near 100km without being accosted, it’s no longer a joke, it’s a monumental failure.

I noticed that as Shekau was doing his perverse show in the background was a Nigerian army Otokar Cobra and it seems a Piranha 3 APC obviously captured and then drives away possibly hundreds of kilometres without being apprehended, don’t have trackers on them? What spec did we get on these things?

What can we do, swallow our pride and call the French in, we may too late already the attack in Cameroon and the kidnap of several French nationals I’m sure French Special Forces are probably deployed.

There has to be real overhaul of our armed forces operational management an audit of costs and where the money is and has been allocated too as well.